Multiethnic Literatures in the U.S.

Note: this page contains both general information about my teaching philosophy, as well as information regarding the courses that in the future will continue to build and expand this site (I am hoping to keep using this site for future classes in order to build an increasingly detailed database of criticism and bibliographical/biographical information on multiethnic authors in the U.S., a growing set of student’s own critical approaches to multiethnic texts/issues, as well as a forum for hopefully increasingly complicated discussions of current sociopolitical and socioeconomic issues in relation to cultural production). “About” thus contains course descriptions for the classes involved in this project, as well as meta-sections on teaching strategies and my teaching philosophy. Therefore, the comment portion of “About” is dedicated to questions and comments on specific teaching issues (regarding multiethnic literatures, digital classrooms, alternative writing assignments, etc.). I am looking forward to your feedback and future discussions.

Descriptions of courses that were/are involved in building this site:

ENGL 113, Spring 2008: Race, Diversity, Neoliberalism

This reading intensive course will examine literary representations of racialized (political) subjectivity in times of multiculturalism and diversity management. Focusing on African-American and Asian-American literature of the last two decades, we will examine recent developments in the sociopolitical logic and power structures of the U.S. that have radically transformed the ways in which we discuss concepts such as race, racism, citizenship, whiteness, governmentality, power, marginalization, and inclusion. In times of neoliberalism, the principles upon which our socioeconomic order rests reject the violently segregating power structures we often still tend to associate with the term “racism.” How, then, do we talk about racism and racialized subjectivity in a society that understands itself as a clean space, free from racism, in which racism is increasingly located in a marginalized area inhabited by stereotypical representatives of the “old racism” such as Don Imus? We are hence dealing with a very traditionally liberal inside/outside conception of race, transforming the statement “racism is bad and we all condemn it, because we all think we should get along” into the assumed social and ideological dominant. We know racism still exists, yet where do we locate it, and how do we talk about it in times of neoliberal diversity management when we all claim to be anti-racists and fiercely attack those “few” Don Imuses still left in our society? The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has often been described as bringing our focus back to the racism existing in the midst of our society. What is the logic that underlies this kind of racism and how does it relate to the new power structures that determine the function of racialized subjectivity and cultural diversity in a globalized U.S. Karen Tei Yamashita alludes to when she writes, “multiculturalism is a white guy in a flannel shirt wearing dreadlocks?” 

Readings:

Karen Tei Yamashita. Tropic of Orange

Octavia Butler. Parable of the Sower

—.                     Parable of the Talents

Cynthia Kadohata. In the Heart of the Valley of Love

Chang Rae Lee. Aloft

Colson Whitehead. John Henry Days

—.                           Apex Hides the Hurt

Walter Mosley. Futureland

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